Nifty 3D Christmas Tree Cookies, great to eat or give!

A fabulous way to turn sugar cookies into gorgeous Christmas Tree gifts. They look fabulous, taste great, and are fun and easy to make. They are pretty time intensive, but the result is fabulous. I wrote this up on Dabbled as well.

These were inspired by Wedding Cake Cookies for wedding favors, which are blogged here. I credit my fabulously creative aunts for the idea!

Step 1 Materials & Hardware

Unusual Hardware:
Cookie cutters in star shapes (at least 4 sizes from 1 in or so up)
Small spatula.

Materials:
Sugar cookie dough, with no leavening (ie baking soda or powder), something like this recipe.
Icing (buttercream or similar) that will dry hard.
Green food coloring
Storebought or homemade royal icing flowers. {Cheap, but more labor intensive: make your own ahead of time (google for instructions). More expensive but easier: purchase online or from a local cake supply company} - or - use your imagination to decorate!
Optional: Peanut Butter Cups, miniature.
Optional: acetate favor boxes for packaging.

Comments

[debflowers]

This is a great project with kids. And you can use One of each size brownie also!
I use Royal icing for snow and add to ti[s of "tree" dripping off, then add mini m&ms for ornaments! Kids love it. Great Christmas day decoration and the kids (and adults) can eat it for dessert! Just have fun with it!

[CandiiKorn]

These look so cute. I cnt w8 2 make them; they look rlly gud ;) But at the same time they kinda look like u dnt wanna eat them cuz theyre cute decors

[Damiser]

i simply love this idea made my "special dough" tonight and gonna have fun with my kiddies tomorrow! Thanks so much!

[knektek]

heres how my tree came out to be... the shapes are not perfect.... and i like my icing :)

[maximus197619]

gawd that looks like a blob with mustard on it. b8ut i bet the thing tasted good

[knektek]

Thanks, it was like one of those things that looks gross but tastes great! It was a virtue because my family can sometimes be cookie hunters, and the decorations got them off my creation! Tasty for me disgusting for them :)

[Ward_Nox]

i discovered something when i did this the number of each size cookie is determined by how THICK your cookies come out mine came out thin so i ended up doing 4 sets of 4 to get the height i wanted

[gjm]

I know this has nothing to do with the cookies but your kitchen looks awesome.
The cookies are really cool too.

[DotatDabbled]

thx, though it's not my kitchen unfortunately, but an aunts'...!

[jjinyancey]

Hey, wouldn't they be pretty (at each place setting on your Christmas table) in a simple, long-stemmed wine glass?  You could even transport the glasses in a cardboard beer six-pack carrier.

[DotatDabbled]

Very cool idea...    The only issue I could see is that it might be hard to move the assembled tree into the glass, or assemble it in the glass...

[mcorbin]

 They're great! I have seen centerpiece sized trees like this, but
I really like these 'personal sized ' trees. 

I have a set of graduated snowflake cookie cutters. I'm going to try
it with those. 

[DotatDabbled]

I'd love to see pics of the ones you do with the snowflakes... I suspect they will do nicely!

[knektek]

could you add red dots of icing randomly on some of the verticies for the balls that you hang up

[DotatDabbled]

an excellent idea! 

[thepbyguy]

Verry good idea !!!

[red-king]

 looks good!

[Bartboy]

I guess I was wrong, it doesn't have WIN written all over it,
it has WINNER! written on it.

What did I say?
 Glad you entered?
Well, congratulations!

[Ward_Nox]

i have 2 sets of cookie cutters i bought i got JUST to do this one set is stars the Other is snowflakes

[melynia]

awesome!!! if you put to much icig on the stars you wont be able to finish though!!! i love <3 the idea though!!! ( i looked at all your other instuctables they are also so neat and awesome!!!)

[Kiwipancakes]

May I ask why you call for a recipie that has no Baking soda or powder?

[DotatDabbled]

because you don't want the cookies to rise, or else they wont stack straight.

[boogsy72]

Awesome!

[Mr_bakiecakieness]

thats what I call a cookie

[goeon]

awsome 5*

[bobhill125]

i used rollos in stead of resses cus some of my friends allegic to peanets

[how_may_i_help_you]

I did this and it worked great. What I did was cut 2 more really small star cookies, and after they cooked, I cut a line down from a point to the middle of the cookie, then did from the middle to the end with the other. I then slid them together to make a 3D star for the top. I don't think I explained it properly, but hopefully you go the drift

[DotatDabbled]

neat idea! I'd love to see a picture..

[depotdevoid]

Hey, that's neat! My mom used to make those and give them as gifts every Christmas.

[Browncoat]

Could poke a hole in each cookie with a thin dowel rod before cooking. Then just put 'em on the dowel rod after & it'd be easier to eat... just slide one at a time off as you want to eat. Very neat idea!!

[how_may_i_help_you]

or a skewer/kabab stick

[taiphoon]

OMG! I wanna try green cookies with white frosting for snow!

[matt_sawyers]

Or powdered sugar for snow! What about using even a smaller cookie cutter shape, cut the cookie in half and (one half whole, the other half cut in half again- positioning the while half vetically pointing up, and the other two pieces gliued the larger half) attach to the top using royal icing. That might create a nice "top" to the tree. Just a thought. Thabks for the instructable, I am gonna give this a try this year!

[taiphoon]

oh man, powdered sugar sounds good, too! or, for an indoors-y tree, you could use tiny confetti sprinkles for ornaments and lights, and maybe just coat everything with granulated sugar for a tinsel-y sparkle.

[DotatDabbled]

Oooh, I love the idea of making these all white, then covering in a dusting of sparkly sugar. Very elegant!

[sockeye101]

for peopole with peanut allrgies they could use rolo pieces instead!

[DotatDabbled]

they might be a little small/unstable... but you could use sliced swiss rolls (http://www.littledebbie.com/products/SwissCake.asp) or something similar, as an alternative! Good thought on the peanut alergy prone.

[carolbrowne]

I love your idea for the trunk! Genius!

[lancmaltby]

Hello Dot ! I love these!!! I will be adding these with my Gingersaurous rex cookies. They will have a forest to live in!

[Bartboy]

Enter this is the holiday treats contest, it has WIN written all over it!